February 20, 2005

February 20, 2005

El Paso, Texas to Truth Or Consequences, New Mexico

DAY 247

 

Today was a warm, sunny day.

This morning Joanne did not want to travel on the Interstate to Las Cruces. We departed the New Mexico Travel Information Centre and travelled local farm roads west for a few miles until we made it to Hwy. 28. Hwy. 28 is the old, original highway between El Paso, Texas and Las Cruces, New Mexico. It runs parallel to the Interstate. It passes by pecan groves and chile farms. The valley between mountains is quite fertile. We got a little lost when we got to Las Cruces, and had to cross the city from Hwy. 28 to Interstate 10. After a bit of angst, we made it onto Interstate 10, and just a few miles later, onto Interstate 25, heading north.

We followed I-25 north from Las Cruces, travelling beside the Rio Grande River, and the Caballo Mountains. Joanne drove for awhile. She's getting better at it. We left I-25 at Truth Or Consequences, New Mexico, and immediately got onto Hwy. 187, backtracking south for 2 miles to Desert Haven Animal Refuge.

Desert Haven is a no-kill animal shelter here at Truth Or Consequences. About 13 months ago as we were planning this travel adventure, they advertised for WorkCampers for 3 month volunteer assignments, in exchange for a serviced site in their 8 site RV Park. I applied for a 6 week assignment for us, in January and February, 2005. They reluctantly accepted our condition of staying only 6 weeks. We and Desert Haven came to an agreement in January, 2004, and we were looking forward to working at Desert Haven in January and February, 2005. After we started this travel adventure, and had been on the road for a few months, Desert Haven sent us an e-mail late last summer. They reneged, and retracted their WorkCamper job offer. They decided that they couldn't offer us a 6 week opportunity. It was 3 months or nothing ! I was really annoyed ! They invited us to drop by for a visit, and maybe next year ( 2006 ) we might be interested in a 3 month assignment. Today we took them up on their offer, and stopped by for a visit / tour.

UGH ! It was not at all what we expected. We are so glad that we are not working here ! They are on 5 acres of land out in the desert. They have a very nice cat building, currently housing 22 cats. Their dog kennel currently has 10 dogs. They have a bird and small animal building with 3 peacocks, many doves, many pheasants, rabbits, guinea pigs, and chickens. The facility, the people, the RV Park ... none of it was quite what we would have wanted in a WorkCamper job.

We thanked them for the tour, and left. We had been planning to stay at least over night in their RV Park, but after the tour, we didn't want to stay. We drove a bit further north to Elephant Butte State Park, just a few miles north of Truth Or Consequences. Elephant Butte Lake is a reservoir lake created by a dam on the Rio Grande River. The scenery is astounding. This large lake is surrounded by the Caballo Mountains. The water level in the reservoir / lake is a bit low this year, so there is a huge expanse of beach around the lake. We are camped up high, overlooking the wide expanse of beach leading to the lake below, and the mountains beyond. Across the lake, we can see a house up on a bluff. The house, and the 40,000 acre ranch surrounding it, belong to Ted Turner.

After we arrived here, and got set up, I spent much of the afternoon working on some maintenance, particularly the roof repair I needed to do. Yesterday, while stopped for lunch in Guadalupe Mountains National Park, I noticed a tear in the rubber roof, about a foot long, right on the front edge where it wraps over the top and onto the side of the trailer. Yesterday at Camping World, I bought some of the supplies I needed to repair the roof. Some of the supplies I already had. Today I worked on fixing it, It will need more work tomorrow, after the first coat of rubber cement that I put on today dries.

We took a long walk with Bo on the sand before supper. He sure loves running in soft sand. And he chases gulls right out into the lake. He has no reservations about running into water.

It's almost 11:00 P.M. as I type this, and Joanne is asking me to go with her and Bo for a late evening walk, because the weather is so pleasant tonight.

DSK